I feel like a kid in a candy store.
 

Wow - this is some kind of forum you've got here. What a fantastic repository of information. My husband and I have spent hours going through reading threads.

We're filmmakers. My husband made his first feature length film in Baltimore back in the eighties. Since then, we've made one together, and I've produced a couple others. We're getting serious about a video production business, and that's how we came to this site.

We're currently shooting a documentary on the training of opera singers - our second doc on opera this year. We've shot a lot of live stage shows as well. I'm looking to start shooting some weddings because it really would be nice to have a steady income after all these years of being a starving artist. :) We own an XL2 and an XL1. We're getting ready to purchase a second XL2, and the new Canon XL HD.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who has participated in these fantastic discussions. And thank you especially to the geniuses who host this site - wow. You've earned several lifetimes of good karma here, I'd think. :)

Welcome aboard to both of you, Lori -- glad to have you guys with us! Much respect,

Welcome to DVinfo Lori! Tell us about your opera documentary; in "real life" I work at the Opera Company of Philadelphia :-)

Welcome Lori and Hub. Although my dance productions are not documentary style I sure would love to exchange ideas with you.

We're working with Ann Baltz' Opera Works right now.
 

Ann does a lot of really unique stuff and the footage is deeply sensuous and arresting. She's celebrating her twentieth year and decided it was time to document what she does.

The other doc was for a community program produced by El Dorado Opera Company - a new group here in the San Fernando Valley that is sort of an off-shoot of New York's Chelsea Opera. They did a community event entitled Opera In Film. In many ways, it was a tour de force of editing. It explored filmed operas, films with scores from operas, films with operas staged within them - that kind of thing. My favorite section was the seduction in Don Giovanni. Brad, my husband, cut between the scene in Babette's Feast between the voice teacher and the student (two voices and a piano) and Joseph Losey's production (full orchestral support) and made it seem as if both pieces were filmed to work together. It was wonderful, wonderful cutting and absolutely enchanting.

Dance - I'd love to hear more about filming dance recitals. I've shot several live theatre productions and want to do more. But dance recitals - I'd be in heaven.

Dance - I'd love to hear more about filming dance recitals.
 

They are actually fun to do and attending two or more rehearsals is paramount to a good final product especially the last dress rehearsal. I actually had to learn storyboarding with these type events in order to produce a quality video.
We use as many as five cams and in post we get as creative a possible while maintaining full view of the dancers since the most important thing to show is the choreography although a few glimpses of the dancers faces give the whole thing a personal feeling.

That sounds fascinating, but didn't you have some copyright issues to deal with there? Last year I did video for use in Die Waküre and we needed a montage of war scenes for the famous ride of the Valkyries sequence. Even though it was a major company in South America, aside from my fee our budget for the video was virtually non-existent. I dug through public domain sources and ended up with something everyone was very happy with. But along the way it was an ongoing battle with the director and designer to convince them that we couldn't just take whatever specials they had seen on the History Channel and use them!

Anyway, it sounds like you're doing some cool stuff. Will look forward to hearing more about your projects in the future!

We do a minimum of three cameras for
 

theatre productions. There are a lot of different styles for shooting and editing dance. I find myself frustated with Baz Luhrman because he doesn't show you the full movement of the dancer a la Herbert Ross. I guess Rob Marshall falls somewhere in between. But I agree on showing the dancer's faces - it would anchor the piece in the individual humanity.

Do you have any samples online? I'd love to see what you do and if you ever needed a camera person in LA - I'm your girl. :)

Not for it's original use, we didn't.
 

El Dorado had it produced for an educational event that was free and open to the community. Under Free and Fair Use standards, since we were using clips and no one was being charged to attend the classes, the attorneys felt that we were within the law. As we expand what it is we do with the piece, we'll have to resolve licensing issues. So far, the response has been positive but we're far from finished.

Welcome aboard, Lori and Brad! This is a great place to learn, and a great place for entertainment too. I'm sure you can both bring some valuable experience to share.